Topos are great, if you really understand how to read them.
The USGS updates them about every 10 years around here in PA., usually with aerial photos that are compared and use them to modify the old versions. They add or delete roads, builidngs, lakes, ponds, bridges, development, woodland coverage, and even some changes in the ground due to quarrrying and mining.
It's fun to look at 30, 40, or 50 year old ones and see all the changes in the area..

Man!

Ive been missin out!
I was in whitetail.com and this thread about googleearth and so i downloaded it, Man ive been starin at my huntclub property all day findin funnel's that i didnt know were there, and i thought i walked every ridge of those propertys but ive found some awesome spots!

Like a large soybean field about 1000yds on a neiboring property That i didnt know was there, Thats why the deer are climbing the creek bank going over there, Ive been hunting this property for 25years and finally found out why they travel where there going and why!
WOW!

Topos are great, if you really understand how to read them.
The USGS updates them about every 10 years around here in PA., usually with aerial photos that are compared and use them to modify the old versions. They add or delete roads, builidngs, lakes, ponds, bridges, development, woodland coverage, and even some changes in the ground due to quarrrying and mining.
It's fun to look at 30, 40, or 50 year old ones and see all the changes in the area..

We have maps from the early 1940's and the changes are wild. One map is now almost all water since the dam was built.

We have maps from the early 1940's and the changes are wild. One map is now almost all water since the dam was built.

Most of our maps were first made in the 40's. During and after WWII the government used lots of military surveyers and sophisticated (for the time) photo recon aerial pictures to make the maps we use today. If you look at the legend it will tell when it was made, and revised. Most are in the mid 40's.
We had a update done and it now shows a pond where beavers dammed a meadow. Coyotes killed the beavers, the dam broke and drained, and now guys walk around looking for the "Lake" on the map. They just can't understand that it's not there.
It's fun trying to tell guys walking around with waders and fishing rods in the woods that the "seculed pond" they see on the map drained 6 years ago, and only existed for less that 3 years anyway.

I tried to use a google earth map last year, but the area that I hunted most the time was cloudy the day they took the picture and you really could make out many terrain features. Does anyone know how often the satellite may pass over an area and update the photo?

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:
Jesus Christ & The American G. I.
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

Some People spend their whole lives wondering if they made a difference in the world.
Luckily our Service Men and Women don't have that problem.

has anyone used the new GPS units that overlay your route on a Topo map and use an electronic compass to pinpoint within a few feet where you are ?

They also show the Topo behind your route markers so you know the steepness of the grade and you know if your GPS is showing a 3 to 1 up and you are you are walking on a flat surface that something is wrong. Also gives a great indication of the area around you and helps find great places that may have otherwise been missed.

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